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We looked back in our archives and found evidence of that - and reflected on it with his former mentor and lifelong friend Joan Samuels.

Joan Samuels, BCVI
"He was the first person who took the challenge to go on the streets of Belize using a white cane. in spite of all the negative things that were said while he was walking on the street, he had the determination to be independent."

Jules Vasquez, Reporting
We all knew Hector Hoare, trailblazing advocate for the rights of visually impaired - but despite his facility with a walking stick and his accomplishments as a singer and a teacher, he was not born blind, he was the victim of two unfortunate accidents:

Hector Hoare
"I had lost one eye at the age of two years old, that was also an accident; I got stick in my right eye with a knife at that time. And at the age of 17 I was playing with one of my friends, he had a bamboo in his right hand and I had one in my hand and I was trying to defend myself so that he doesn't really hit me with the bamboo; by the time I could turn my head back to see what was his intention, the bamboo was right there to meet me in my left eye. I tried to convince myself that I have to go on; life does not end here and I must go on with the help of other people and they gave me encouragement and I say well yes this is what I need."

Those other people included primarily Joan Samuels at BCVI who worked with Hector for 24 years

Joan Samuels, BCVI
"He wanted to become a teacher, he wanted to get work, he wanted to own his own home and eventually have a family. He got all of these except a child."

Jules Vasquez
"What was it in him that made him not be a bitter or resentful person?"

Joan Samuels, BCVI
"I think if Hector would have been here to speak for himself he would have said it was because of the way he was brought up. He was thought that there was a God and that nothing happened in life unless there was a purpose and after Hector found his purpose in life, Hector lived that belief."

Daedra Issacs
"Do you see yourself as handicapped?"

Hector Hoare
"No I don't."

Daedra Issacs
"How do you see yourself?"

Hector Hoare
"I see myself as a normal person, it's all because I don't have a sight but I can almost everything that a sighted person can do."

He graduated from teacher's college - with determination and optimism that would come to mark his public life.

Joan Samuels, BCVI
"He started at Stella Maris just as a teacher and then he went through several courses actually 11 of them from the School for the Blind in Illinois and that gave him the equivalent of a high school. He then again with the support of BCVI, he did his first class, he passed that and he immediately went to Teacher's College and he came out as a trained teacher all the while teaching at Stella Maris school teaching Braille and math."

Hector Hoare
"I being a blind person; I have that kind of feeling that I will always want to help the less fortunate, give them a little of what I know and also to be a role model for these children so that when they grow up they will be able to look upon me and say yes he has done a great job why can't we do the same thing and I am also paving the way for them so that in the near future they won't be able to meet the difficulties that myself and other blind have face in the near future."

Hector Hoare. Hector, was 52, and had kidney problems going back over a year....